Review on two CD's by Ed Keenan of Cow Chip Poetry
Working Cowboy Band        Yampa Valley Boys

“Lost In The Shuffle” — Rick Robledo of the Working Cowboy Band

Rick’s voice is pleasingly silky-soft and mellow. It makes even the hardness of his drummer’s rim shot sound pretty. This is not just the old barroom, “Bubbles In My Beer.” He has distilled these, country western, swing and Texas two step songs of the nineteen fifties and sixties in to a “Honky-tonk Champaign.” The steel guitar and sweet fiddles bring out the irresistible call to the dance floor.

In the fiercely competitive world of country music CD’s, he may just break the barrier of anonymity.  www.workingcowboyband.com
 

“Save the Cowboy” by the Yampa Valley Boys, John Fisher and Steve Jones, is reminiscent of the early cowboy singers, part song, part talkin poetry and apparently part roots. Their love of the old cowboy life comes through. Steve’s environmental lyrics to “Save The (Metropolitan) Cowboy,” are an entertaining spin.

The old-timey flavor of their CD harks back to Irish folk and blue grass, with a nice blend of banjo and mandolin. The banjo instrumentals are picked clean as a scalded hen. And those recitations of cowboy poetry sound like a lanky cowpoke with his Stetson brim pulled down to his Mark Twain mustache.

These back-to-the-roots style of voices and cowboy refrains, from the Yampa Valley Boys, are certain to bring some mighty fine listenin pleasure to lovers of this genre.   www.yampavalleyboys.com

“May all ther cow chips have a greener linin.”

Ed Keenan © 03-03
For more about Ed Keenan, his poetry and cowboy recipes, visit Cow Chip Poetry.